MARGAO
Agitated boat owners have red flagged what they termed as South Goa Planning and Development Authority’s unilateral decision to increase the sopo charges on fish brought for sale by them at the SGPDA wholesale fish market.
That’s not all. Questioning the delay by the SGPDA to float the sopo fee collection tender, the boat owners have said the local fishing stakeholders, including the boat owners, traditional fishermen should jointly take up the tender.
The boat owners have claimed that SGPDA have hiked the sopo charges on fish brought by them in the wholesale fish market from Rs 150 to Rs 300 per hour. They have questioned the rationale behind the sudden hike in the sopo rates without taking the stakeholders into confidence.
The issue figured prominently at the meeting of the Cutbona Boat owners Federation held at the Cutbona fishing jetty on Tuesday, wherein boat owners opposed tooth and nail the sudden increase in the sopo fees.
Chairman of the Cutbona Fisheries society Savio D’Silva told the media after the meeting that the boat owners attending the meeting of the Federation has strongly objected to the hike in the sopo fees on fish brought for sale by them in the wholesale fish market.
“How can the SGPDA double the sopo fees on the boat owners without taking them into confidence. We have been told that the rate has been increased by 100 per cent on the plea that boat owners do not get the fish by their own vehicles. This is not a ground for the SGPDA to hike the sopo fees. Transportation of the fish catch from the jetty to the wholesale fish market is not the look out of the SGPDA”, Savio said.
The SGPDA should know that the wholesale fish market is dependent on the catch brought for sale by the Goan fishermen comprising of the boat owners and the traditional fishermen. He disclosed plans to call on the SGPDA Chairman, MLA Krishna Daji Salkar to demand a roll back on the sopo fees.
Savio further pointed out that when their vehicles come out of the wholesale fish market after the sale and wait on the road for the workers to load the boxes, the vehicles are charged Rs 100 as fees outside the market.
Saying the fishing stakeholders are being fleeced under the guise of sopo fees, Savio questioned the inordinate delay in floating the tender for the collection of sopo fees. “We are the fishing stakeholders, who get the fish to the market, but are being fleeced by someone else. We will demand the floating of the sopo tender immediately. For, the fishermen comprising of boat owners and traditional fishermen will jointly take up the tender to mete out justice to the stakeholders and to ensure the upkeep and maintenance of the wholesale fish market”, he added.
